By: C Icart, Staff Writer
It’s been over two months since Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services ordered all tents in Hastings Tent City be removed. Since then, increased efforts for forced decampment have been taking place in the Downtown Eastside.
Street sweeps on East Hastings Street have been carried out by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and municipal workers. They target unhoused residents of the Downtown Eastside and take their belongings. Displacing vulnerable community members, many of whom are Indigenous, is violence. The #stopthesweeps movement emerged to denounce the violence carried out against Downtown Eastside residents by the VPD.
The tent city is a very visible way of seeing the state of the houselessness crisis in so-called Vancouver. This is why some still welcome street sweeps in spite of VPD violence. Rent in the city is incredibly high, and housing supply is low. However, houselessness is the problem, not the houseless. We need solutions that support the people in our communities, rather than alienate and attack them. Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, stated current inaction from the city and province neglects and criminalizes unhoused people. She said the houselessness crisis intersects with “toxic drug supply, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit, and the colonial child welfare and justice systems.”
Many people living in tents on East Hastings have been displaced multiple times from places like Strathcona park and Oppenheimer park. On top of the inadequate housing supply, many alternatives being offered such as shelters are less safe than living on the streets. Stigma also shapes how houseless people in our communities are treated and portrayed.
Heather Hay, CEO of Foundations of Social Change, has made similar arguments about inadequate services for houseless people. The non-profit organization is “currently running a pilot program that provides cash transfers to 200 homeless people in Vancouver.” This strategy has already been tried on a smaller scale with success. However, the program screened applicants for complex mental health issues, drug and alcohol misuse, and significant gambling issues. This meant that the vast majority of the interviewees did not meet the criteria, as a considerable amount of the houseless population in the DTES struggles with addiction and mental health issues. This means none of these vulnerable community members benefited from the cash transfers’ positive results. We need solutions that take into account these intersecting problems and barriers.
A recent poll found 73% of British Columbians think houselessness is a major problem in BC, and 55% think “their local government had done either a “bad” (32%) or “very bad” (23%) job of coming up with solutions to the problem.” I agree. On top of being dehumanizing and traumatizing, the fact that street sweeps have happened for years proves they don’t work.
We need solutions that are evidence-based and not rooted in stigma. It’s important to unlearn many of the misconceptions about houselessness, addiction, and mental illness if we want to move forward and build a community that’s safe for all. The municipal election is coming up and candidates have spoken about how they plan on addressing the housing crisis. Voters must take this into consideration.
